L'Odyssée d'Alizée

by Gisèle Pineau

Adolescente noire dans une famille blanche, Alizée a été adoptée. À treize ans, elle aimerait en savoir plus sur sa famille biologique, retourner en Haïti, retrouver les odeurs et sensations de ses deux premières années. Ses parents se laissent convaincre, la famille s'installe en Guadeloupe. Nouvelle vie pour Alizée, nouveau rythme pour la famille et Haïti est toute proche. Son rêve se concrétise. La réalité sera-t-elle à la hauteur de ses attentes ?

112 pages, Paperback

First published May 29, 2010

About the author

Gisèle Pineau is a French novelist, writer and former psychiatric nurse. Although born in Paris, her origins are Guadeloupean and she has written several books on the difficulties and torments of her childhood as a Black person growing up in Parisian society.

During her youth, she divided her time between France and Guadeloupe due to her father's stationing in the military.[2] Pineau struggled with her identity as a Black immigrant due to the racism and xenophobia she experienced at her all-white school in the Kremlin-Bicotre suburb.[2] Pineau took to writing in order to console the difficulties of her French upbringing and Caribbean heritage, as her works would connect the two cultures rather than separating them.[3][4]

In her writings, she uses the oral tradition of storytelling in fictional works to reclaim the narratives of Caribbean culture.[4] She also focuses on racism and the effects it can have on a young girl trying to discover her own cultural identity. Her book L'Exil Selon Julia highlights this, as she relies on the memories and experiences of her aged grandmother to help her learn about her society's traditions and her own cultural background. In the book, she also mentions that the discrimination she felt as a youngster did not only apply to French society in Paris, but also to the people of Guadeloupe, who rejected her for being too cosmopolitan upon her return to the land of her ancestors.

She for many years lived in Paris and, whilst maintaining her writing career, has also returned to being a psychiatric nurse in order to balance out her life; but she recently has moved back to Guadeloupe.

Reviews

[Purple Iris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good book. There were places where the writing was less than stellar, but the main character was believable. Jasmine's character provided some balance. I wish Pineau had used Haitian Creole instead of an Antillean version because it took me completely out of the text when old Haitian women started talking about "pov pitit ich."